Shipping carriers (e.g., common carriers, such as United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), FedEx, United States Postal Service (USPS), etc.) daily transport millions of packages over tens of thousands of routes to and from a variety of clients for different purposes. Generally, shipping carriers incorporate a plurality of tracking data and use a plurality of tracking assets so as to generate and document a plethora of information associated with the transport of these packages. The provision and use of this information by various parties associated with particular packages is extremely beneficial, not only for purposes of customer service, but also for efficiency and effectiveness across the shipping carrier's platform.
In existing configurations, multiple systems may be employed to monitor and analyze parameters associated with transport of a plurality of packages and provide reports thereon. Such systems further transmit any of a variety of collected and/or recorded data to any of a variety of parties, whether upon request or otherwise. However, such systems do not typically collect data regarding the data requesting party, for example, where access to data is directly requested. Those systems that do collect such data, typically do nothing further other than storing the same in one or more databases, conceivably for future retrieval, as may be necessary.
As a result, undocumented and/or previously unauthorized access or use of any portion of the plurality of tracking data, via the tracking assets associated systems or otherwise, represents, at best, an area of un- or under-capitalized revenue for shipping providers. At worst, undocumented and/or unauthorized data usage could further result in a loss of customers via, for example data mining by competitor shipping providers. Accordingly, a need exists for a consolidated system that not only monitors and tracks access and usage of package tracking data by a plurality of parties, but also manages the usage rights associated with the same so as to create an efficient and effective gating system configured to distinguish between authorized and unauthorized uses of such data and to proactively respond to deviations therefrom, as appropriate.